1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a dynamic xe2x80x9ccyber tonerxe2x80x9d and methods of use thereof in which microencapsulated Gyricon beads are used to create an individualized reimageable document. The document may be a multi-colored, multi-field document formed using various different colored xe2x80x9ccyber toners.xe2x80x9d
2. Description of Related Art
Twisting ball mediums for displaying an image are well known. Such mediums include bichromal balls that rotate to show either black or white hemispheres in response to an applied electric field. Such twisting balls operate by having two or more distinct hemispheres with both an optical anisotropy and an electrical anisotropy due to each hemisphere surface having a different color and electrical charge. The twisting balls are generally embedded in a fluid-filled cavity of a transparent binder substrate to form a Gyricon sphere or bead. The substrate is then generally bonded between glass or plastic sheets to create a Gyricon display that acts as electric paper.
When an electric field is presented over the display, the twisting balls within the substrate rotate in reaction to the electric field by rotating in the fluid. U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,854 to Sheridon and U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,103 to Sheridon, each incorporated herein by reference in their entirety, describe conventional twisting ball displays.
Gyricon displays ideally have characteristics and qualities of conventional paper, such as flexibility. However, conventional Gyricon displays are not paper-like because they are generally fairly rigid. This is because it was initially believed necessary to provide glass or other substrate protective coverings or sheets to protect the Gyricon spheres. A further discussion of the disadvantages of conventional Gyricon displays is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,027 to Sheridon, now U.S. Reissue Pat. No. 37,085, which is also incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In an effort to make the Gyricon displays more paper-like, attempts have been made to individually encapsulate the twisting particles. This is called microencapsulation. A conventional approach to microencapsulating a twisting ball centers on a chemical process where the twisting balls are first produced using conventional methods and then are subsequently immersed and treated in chemical solutions, resulting in an encapsulated capsule. One such process is disclosed in the above ""027 patent. Another such process can be found in co-pending U.S. Ser. No. 09/749,379 filed Dec. 28, 2000 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod for Making Microencapsulated Gyricon Beads,xe2x80x9d the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Other examples of microencapsulated twisting particles can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,804 to Jacobsen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,185 to Albert, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,588 to Jacobsen, the disclosures of which are each incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
While microencapsulated displays may be an improvement over original twisting ball displays, there are still problems with such displays.
To date, efforts at making electric paper have primarily focused on forming sheets of Gyricon displays that themselves serve as rewriteable electric paper. However, such displays have limited application. For example, as the balls are usually two-sided, the resultant output of ON/OFF states results in only monochromatic detail. Moreover, operations to perform both imaging or erasure usually act on the entire sheet as the whole sheet is in the form of electric paper. There is a need for systems and methods that increase the versatility and use of Gyricon displays.
This invention provides a microencapsulated Gyricon toner or xe2x80x9ccyber tonerxe2x80x9d that can be dynamically alterable and selectively applied to any of a number of surfaces, such as conventional paper.
This inventions separately provides methods of printing using such xe2x80x9ccyber toners.xe2x80x9d
This invention further separately provides different colored Gyricon toners that can be selectively applied by various printing techniques to a surface to form a document that can have various fields of the document, representing text, images or graphics, be in differing colors.
This invention yet further separately provides methods and systems that enable a composite document to contain both fixed and variable data fields by combining both fixed print from conventional printing techniques and selective printing using the inventive xe2x80x9ccyber tonersxe2x80x9d to provide a more versatile and presentable document. With such systems and methods, the document can have certain fields or areas selectively reimageable or erasable, while retaining a fixed printing (non-erasable) in other areas.
These and other features and advantages of the invention are described in, or apparent from, the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to the invention.